Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Trip to Semarang (2) : Pasar Gg.Baru + {recipe} Bolang-Baling

My husband and children like call me 'a market lady'.
Some friends call me 'a market photographer'...hahaha. Hmmm fine.
One thing for sure that cannot be changed; I do like to visit traditional markets. It always turns to an exciting and memorable journey. I always find something new, to see and to buy.
...and later on, visiting a local traditional market has become a part of our travelling journey.
Then, soon I'll call my family as 'a market family'.

Continuing my posting 'Trip to Semarang (1)', now let me share about one place in Semarang China Town that I visited during our trip in October 2011 *what a long delay* which gives me a beautiful memory about how interesting a traditional market is.

Actually, traditional market can be found in every villages, towns and cities in Indonesia. For generations to generations, Indonesians get their daily food in traditional markets. Here, traditional market can be just a temporary structure, the one that we like to call as Pasar Kaget (Surprising Market), and only open at certain time. Oooh this reminds me to the unique Pasar Punclut in North Bandung.
Other than that, we are also familiar with market in permanent buildings which could be small, medium or multistory structures like Pasar Badung, in Denpasar.

Looking from the pictures above, you may easily guess that this market falls into the first category,... yes, the temporary market, or "surprising market"!

Located in a narrow Gang Baru (which means New Alley) in Semarang China Town, paralleled with the famous Jl.Beteng (where Jewelry shops are located) and Gang Belakang (means Back Alley).
The ideal time to visit this market is between 6am to 10am. That is the time when most of the sellers already set up their 'shop' on spot. After 10am, most of the shops are closed.

The items that are sold in traditional market, basically are the same. From fruits and vegetables, meats, chicken, seafood (and the innards), spices, dry goods to the households. The things that make them unique and different with other market is the items that sold to serve the ethnic group that live nearby the market. Or I can say that the location of the market contributes to uniqueness of the market activities.

As I wrote before that this market is located at the China Town. Then, it'll be clear that this market serves its neighbor, the Chinese community. From Chinese spices, food ingredients, various types of Chinese food to the Chinese praying materials are available here.

For me personally, it's always interesting to enter, to explore, to see all aspects in every traditional market. I enjoy to see the merchandises, I like to watch how people interact with others, the bargaining, the velocity of the money, ...all in one place.

Interesting to know about Pasar Gang Baru:
* Don't try to find a gate or signage of this market. Just go through the narrow Gang Baru, you'll find the market. You can enter from Jl. Wot Gandul or Gang Warung.
* This market selling lots of Indonesian daily needs, not only everything that related with Chinese food or their needs. Fresh food ingredients, spices, and also delicious traditional Javanese Food are available here.
* Porters... Like others big traditional market, porters are ready to help you in this 'surprising market'...and all of them are women. They carried a big rattan basket on their back, and will follow their customer doing their shopping.
* Long time ago, this market was known as 'pork market', because this is the only place where people can sell and buy pork in Semarang.
* On the late afternoon, ... Gang Baru will look like other road in that neighborhood. Car or other small vehicles can pass the road. Don't try to find the market after 12 o'clock noon.

After about more than one hour walking back and forth through this alley, I decided to have a good energy booster. I chose to enjoy Cendol that served with Jack Fruit and Durian. It's iced drink made from palm sugar syrup, coconut milk and fragments of green-colored rice flour dough with jelly texture.Very refreshing.

I left the market with full-charged energy, and continued my afternoon walking journey exploring the exotic Semarang China Town.
Check the story on the Semarang trip episode 1 here.

As a closing of this posting, let me share the recipe of Bolang-Baling.
Hhmmm probably for some people the name sounds funny and unique.

The idea to make home made Bolang-Baling came after I found some Bolang-Baling were sold in Pasar Gang Baru. It was sold inside a glass box behind a bicycle.

Bolang-Baling, actually is a fried bread, like donut. It has rectangular shape, puffy, and also some people like to call 'Roti Bantal' or Pillow Bread. This bread is popular in Semarang, and some other places in Java.

Originally, one of the important ingredients to make Bolang-Baling is ammonia. I'll not talk about this ingredient, but I'm not really familiar to use this ingredient in my kitchen, so I'm looking for other recipe that not using ammonia. Luckily, I got one from Femina Indonesia Magazine.

If you are interested to make this bread, please be aware about the fermentation time that takes about 3 hours. So don't start to make it if you don't want to spare time and can't continue all that process.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Sate Maranggi

For many times I have mentioned that 'cookies are treats that never disappointing'.
And now, I have to say that 'Sate is the side dish that never disappointing'.

OK, I'm serious. This kind of dish always brings such happiness to us. For me, it's not hard to prepare it, not at all. And the result; always delicious, hmmm... it always makes my family enjoying their meal and for sure, no left over. After all, ... the cook is always happy when she knows the customer like her cooking.

Actually, preparing sate is not difficult. There are 3 main components that we need to prepare; the main ingredient (could be beef or chicken or fish or seafood, ... or others such as tempe, innards, vegetables), the seasoning, and the sauce (not always needed though).

Later on, the seasoning will be the one which determine the special taste of sate. It can be marinated for a while before start grilling the sate. It can be 'slow cooked' to let the seasoning is absorbed well before grilling, or simply just mix them and grill.

As always, fresh ingredients are the best, so choose fresh and good quality ingredients while go shopping, treat them as your good mate, then it'll give you extra good score for your cooking result.

Sate Maranggi, that originally is from Purwakarta, West Java.Where is Purwakarta?*Please note : it's not Purwokerto which is located in Central Java*
Remember my posting about Jatiluhur Lake early this year? If you see the first (b/w) picture, you can see the city sign of Purwakarta. Yup, it's located about half way between Jakarta and Bandung.

Sate Maranggi is made from cow or goat meat; i.e. beef or mutton. The harmony flavors in the seasoning make this sate become special; sweet from the sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) and palm sugar/coconut sugar (gula jawa) combine with sour taste from asam jawa (tamarind). Serving with the Sauce which is another beautiful combination between sweet soy sauce and vinegar, mix with chopped tangy shallots, spicy green chili and juicy tomato.

Curious?
You can go to Purwakarta (only 1.5hrs from Jakarta), where this kind of sate is easy to be found in every corner of the town. Or... why don't you try to make it by yourself?

Morning is the perfect time to start exploring the highland. In every visit to Bali, normally we plan to make one trip to visit some interesting destinations around highland area. Using the rental car and a piece of map, we can explore those places effectively without getting lost.

Tegalalang
One of Bali icons is the rice terrace. It's mix of nature and culture. Not just the rice terrace is well known, but also the water management system for paddy fields in Bali that is called Subak.

Our trip to the highland area began by visiting Tegalalang Paddy Field, not too far from Ubud. If you're lucky enough, you can enjoy the expanse yellowish mature paddy. Unfortunately when we visited this place last time, some areas were just recently harvested completely.

UbudPeace and quite.Exotic, vibrant, and colorful.

In the past, Ubud was just a small village, but now is known as ambassadors of Balinese arts and culture.
Since this area is quite large to be explored in only one day trip, lots of visitors spend 2-3 days to stay here to enjoy this peaceful land and to discover the uniqueness of Ubud.

After we parked the car around the "downtown" area, we walked around the main of Ubud junction, visited the Puri Saren Agung, and enjoyed the majestic traditional architectures.

This place is also known as Ubud Palace. It is used to be the home of the last king of Ubud, and now his descendants live there.

Just opposite of this palace, one of the most interesting place to visit is located; Ubud Market.
This market has become a famous tourist destination. Most of them come to buy some art souvenirs.
Here, we can feel the soul of this place.

Some ladies were preparing and selling the offerings.
The others were praying according to the Balinese Hinduism tradition, and sending the offerings.
The smell of smoky incense combined with the aroma of many flowers surrounding us.

Colorful and unique art souvenirs are available in market.
Food... oooh, from traditional snacks to complete Balinese mix rice are available.
From exotic tropical fruits to different kind of spices.
I bought home plenty of vanilla pods!

Here, we really enjoyed walking through the market alleys.
It was good experience to see those humble and simple traditional lifestyle.

Next... what is for lunch?

Lunch in Ubud

A walking distance from Ubud Market, there is the famous Ibu Oka restaurant. Together with many foreign tourists, we had lunch there.

We left Ubud, ...and continue our journey heading west to Bedugul area.

Beratan Lake, Bedugul.

Beratan Lake is a shallow fresh water lake within a high elevated caldera about 1231m above sea level and it is located at Bedugul, one famous tourist destination in Bali.
It is located in a plateau area with cool atmosphere surround it. It's a very beautiful and relaxing place.

Majority of its people's faith is Balinese Hinduism, giving Bali a nick-name as "the island of thousand temples". Temples can be found in all over the island; from small village temple to majestic main temples.
And one of the most "photogenic" temples is found here, by this lake.

Pura Ulun Danu.Built in 1663, this temple is used for offerings ceremony to the Balinese water, lake and river goddess Dewi Danu, due to the importance of Lake Bratan as a main source of irrigation in central Bali. The 11 stories of pelinggih meru dedicated for Shiva and his consort Parvathi. Buddha statue also present inside this temple.(wikipedia)

During wet season when the water level is high, these two temples are surrounded by water making them look like floating on the lake. This is unique and making them become photogenic temple and one of the main destinations for Bali tourism.

Candi Kuning MarketJust before leaving the Bedugul area, we stop by in this market.
It just not too big market, but offer lots of food and souvenirs.

Fresh fruit and vegetable, spices and also lots of snacks and coffee... available.
Here, we warmed our tummy with bowls of traditional meat balls and noodle.

After all the long story, lots of pictures...
for now, let me share the recipe of Balinese Mix Rice. I guarantee, this is 100% halal! Don't worry.

This complete set of menu is my entry for IDFB#6,
Anniversary Edition with the theme: Indonesian Festive Rice.

Balinese Mix Ricerecipes source : Primarasa, Nasi Racik.

Known as one of the biggest rice producer countries in the world, then rice become main part of our daily meal. For many Indonesians, not eating rice means not eating yet!
Not only for daily menu, in many occasions the special rice menu become the hero on dining table.
The most popular one is Nasi Tumpeng, a cone-shaped rice dish like mountain with its side dishes (vegetables and meats) is usually served in special celebration in Indonesian families.

I chose to serve Balinese Mix Rice for this event.
Why? I decided to cook this complete meal to accompany this Bali's 'last' serial story'.

To be honest, it's not an easy job to cook all the dishes, styling and take the pictures in between my daily activities. ...but I made it. I'm happy for it, and my family enjoyed all the dishes for our dinner.

Nasi Campur or Mix Rice is referring to a dish of rice served with various side dishes, including meats, vegetables, peanuts, eggs and fried-shrimp krupuk.
All depending on which areas it originates from. It is a staple meal of the Southeast Asian countries, and very popular in this country.

For Balinese Mix Rice, actually there are lots of choices of side dishes to accompany the steam rice.
You can see in the picture in my previous posting about Pasar Badung, that one of the lady sold lots of type of traditional Balinese side dishes.
I couldn't cook all of them in one time, so I chose the most popular and usual one.

Lawar, Sate Lilit, Be Ayam Pelalah were cooked to accompany my set of Balinese Mix Rice.

Lawar Sayur / Vegetable Lawar

Lawar is mixed vegetable with coconut meat and the taste is sharpened with natural flavors. There are many type of lawars based on the materials for composing the cooking, such as red lawar, and white lawar which is a large part made of coconut meat, and other is vegetable and meat.Lawar is the most favorite cooking during religious rituals, family rituals or any family activities involving many persons. If there is a ceremony or any event of Bali tradition, lawar is the first plan in cooking activity.

Sate Lilit is mince meat or fish by pounding it into very smooth and sticky then mixed with grated coconut meat. The meat or fish is selected only from the good parts; the pure flesh only. It can be cooked by frying or grilling.

Unbelievable, to prepare this sate was not as difficult as I imagined before. Really... it's simple to make and produce a very delicious exotic dish.

English1. Heat oil in a skillet, saute ground spices until fragrant, remove from heat. Combine the sauteed spices with finely chop fish fillet, knead until smooth.2. Add grated coconut, coconut milk and beaten eggs, sugar, lemon juice and sliced kaffir ​​lime leaves, stir until well blended. Divide the dough into 8 parts.3. Take one part of fish batter, shape around a stalk of lemon grass become like a 'bat'. Wrap each with aluminum foil that has been brushed with cooking oil.4. Preheat grill, put satay on it. Bake satay with a back and forth until cook evenly, remove from heat. Open the package and serve as a complementary for Balinese Mix Rice.

Be Siap Pelalah / Balinese Chicken

Twice cooked chicken in spiced mild chilli balacan paste. First, we need to bake the chicken with some spices. After it is cooked, the chicken will be shredded and mixed with spicy ground spices.Very delicious to be enjoyed with the steam rice, rich of flavor.

English:1. Place the chicken in a heat resistant container/pan, coat the chicken with salt and garlic, set aside for about 1 hour.2. Preheat oven at 180 C. Put the container into the oven, bake for 30 minutes until cooked.3. Remove the container of chicken from the oven, leave to cool. Rough-shredded chicken meat and set aside. Heat oil in a skillet, saute ground spices until there's no more unpleasant smell . Add the shredded chicken, stir until cook, add tamarind water.4. Cook until dry, add lime juice, stir, remove from heat. Serve as a complementary for Balinese Mix Rice.